This site follows the evolution of the environmental zealots know as GAB, who’s mission to ridicule and attack the foes of Gaia is changing to one of building sustainability, advocating for food security and localization to mitigate the damage peak oil and climate change will bring.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Ok, I know our country is starting to look like a banana republic with talk of plots, spying on phone calls and uninformed gibberish about "coups" but somewhere in the background my little blog about silver, gold, real money and impending financial collapse managed to beat out a bunch of lawyers, teachers and other people who blog about what they do for a living to make the second round of the Canadian Blog Awards in the Best Professional/Career category. I want to thank anybody who voted for the Canadian Silver Bug, and ask that you mosey back over to the contest site and vote in the final round, if you are so inclined.

For those of you who do not follow me,(like most of the free world) I've successfully predicted $140 barrel oil, major bank failures, the U.S. interest rate so far this year. While I've missed a few by being over exuberant on gold and silver prices and over pessimistic on the U.S. dollar, I've still been a hell of a lot more accurate than the CNBC and BNN talking heads and many of the so called financial experts.

Monday, November 24, 2008

It looks like that crazy big bailout of Citigroup will put the wind back into the sails of the BCE takeover which is set to close mid Dec. For those who have been siting on BCE shares for a long time you can expect to take a big hit on capital gains so I thought I'd forward you to a piece on the complexity of the calculations. Hope it's usefull

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

General Alberto Gonzales too! Hahahah,stop it your killing me.........all over prison abuse, and not even at Gitmo, snort, it's in regard to a prisoner who died of a beating by other imates in Texas in 2001.

While the Judge will probably bend to political pressure and not back the charges, and we all know they will get pardoned or move to Costa Rica before facing jail time, still I will enjoy seeing him shamed and pissed off in the mean time.

Monday, November 17, 2008

During World War I submarines were much less effective than later models, they carried very few of those expensive new fangled torpedoes and more often than not they would seize and capture, or seize and scuttle ships through the threat or use of their deck guns. Since the British never latched onto that whole convoy idea during the Great War, ships were vulnerable and many were captured or simply shelled and sunk despite most German subs having only one smallish naval gun mounted.

The British answer to this was take innocuous looking cargo vessels and outfit them with enough buoyancy to survive being holed by torpedo, often filling the cargo areas with bales of cork or blocks of balsa, the Q-ship.

These ships would then be sent to wander about in areas with a known German presence in a bid to tempt the U-boats to the surface. Once the Germans took the bait and closed in on the Q-Ships, hidden guns would suddenly appear and a fight would ensue. While not all that effective vs. their comparable material investment these ships did destroy 15 subs and acted as a deterrent by increasing German caution when approaching other ships. (it can also be argued that this was an illegal war activity that helped push the move towards total naval war and torpedoing without warning, but that's for some other time, over beer, out of the hearing of any Englishmen who don't like the Admiralty being called war criminals.)

Let’s take a couple of small tankers or cargo ships, add some remote control weaponry run by game geeks with a satellite link (but they can only be armed a by a commanding Naval officer who verifies the target as hostile) and then just drive it back and forth up the coast near Somalia waiting. Every couple of trips change the name, change the look slightly and advertise it’s manifest at regional ports in case they are picking their targets rather than acting randomly. Then when attacked by pirates let the gamers blow the bastards up. Hell with the chance to play with real guns the geeks would pay us for the opportunity. It’s win win, just make sure we lay off the depleated uranium, after all they don't have real military ships.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Gerald Celente is one of the worlds foremost trend analysts, a common guest on CNN, CNBC and often quoted in print media as well. Among his previous predictions are the 1987 stock market crash, the dot com and housing bubbles and the current financial meltdown, so he's not the average crackpot "sky is falling" kind of guy, when he sees panic stuff does goes bad. His current vision for the U.S. over the next 4years is even worse than mine, James Kunstler’s and nearing those of the average MAD MAX wanna be.

Even more bizarre he was allowed onto FOX to give this interview. You know when real possible crisis’s are more sensational than imaginary right wing fear mongering crisis’s the shit must be getting too high to ignore any longer.

Of course FOX spun this as the evil that will happen because of Obama, yet I've heard Celente state these things would likely happen previously without any mention of Obama. You can't expect too much from FOX can you?

I would venture that if he’s correct the next boom will be in self storage establishments converted in hostels. On our side of the border fences and patrols to keep AWBs(American wet backs) from sneaking in may be our new reality.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

When it comes down to it I’m not all that hopeful about what the Obama and the Democratic victory means. I appreciate the significance of Obama’s personal achievement and I’m pleasantly shocked that lies, innuendo, racism, fundamentalism and general redneckery did not triumph; perhaps the U.S. is a slightly better place than I thought. Obama was the smarter, saner, more capable and non senile choice for president, plus anything that keeps that flaky gun toting fundie bitch away from brief cases, launch codes or buttons is a good thing. But besides the obvious reprieve from Holy wars and a attempt to bring on Armageddon in our life time, I don’t see it really makes that much difference which party won. In my opinion both parties are filled up corporate thralls, both parties have little vision or commitment with regard to global warming, and neither acknowledges that peak oil will soon to become a crisis that a bankrupted, energy glutton America is not ready to handle. Neither choice even approached a progressive view point.

The way the financial crisis evolves will differ little with Obama’s influence than it would have from McCain’s; it’s too big and has a life of its own. Neither Obama nor McCain have the balls to stand up to their corporate overlords and say Fuck You! We are in charge! Likewise I can’t see either telling Americans the truth about the debt, the chance of U.S. default, what happens when the Chinese stop loaning them money, and that hyperinflation and eventual dollar death are a reasonable expectation unless the U.S. cuts its spending to the bone. Bankruptcy from new entitlements is little better than bankruptcy from wars.

Obama’s personality and charisma carried the day but now he has to face 4 years of financial turmoil, more demands for bailouts, snowballing deficits, more homeless, more tent cities and realization by the public that a high energy future is not a birth right; all of this on top of the increased expectations promoted by his platform. If they hadn’t fought so hard and dirty to win, I’d swear McCain threw the race so Obama could be scapegoat for the next 4 years.

I truly hope it was personality rather than his platform that got Obama elected because it’s pretty obvious that the cupboard is bare and his promises will quickly be reneged on; at least he can hold onto his personality. Obama is not some kind of superman who can just ignore reality and it’s my belief that he is just as likely to go down in history as the sitting president when the U.S. Empire collapsed (no fault of his own) as he will for his racial triumph.

I hope he will soon level with his voters about the future rather than feed their delusions.

I hope this will convince people to temper their expectations

I hope he can at least nudge them towards a more sustainable future. (Until they've had to suffer shortages I doubt they will even accept a nudge.)

I hope he can improve American’s international image, and work to lessen tensions rather than fan them like the last fools

I hope he’s able to quell the fears the redneck racist fundies were spreading about him so that race will not be an issue again.

I hope he does reopen NAFTA and we are smart enough to get control of our energy supplies like Mexico did and rewrite chapter 11

Most importantly I hope he survives his term. Should anything happen to Obama while in office, the 911 conspiracies will be minor in comparison and the potential for L.A. riots across the country considerable.

So in the end when you measure my hopes against what we can really expect from a politician (even Obama)you can see why I don't expect much.Recommend this Post

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

We hear a fair bit about biodiversity and the loss of species in the wild but what about the damage we have done to the genetic diversity within domestic species because of our industrial breeding practices?

Everyone knows someone who has had a pure bred dog, horse or some other domestic animal and how their finicky natures, hereditary defects or diseases can lead to great costs and great headaches for owners.

We all know that heavy inbreeding can lead to higher occurrences of deformity and genetic diseases but it can also lead to the loss of genes related to disease resistance, the adaptability to deal with stress, drought, and in some species and breeds, a loss in the ability to birth or mate naturally and even the desire to care for ones offspring.

So what happens when we breed chickens for decades, all within the same blood lines in order to fix specific genetic traits such as being a heavy egg layer or reaching an eating weight in record time?

Well a recent study by Bill Muir of Purdue University, as reported in the New Scientist says we create breeds that have lost up to 90% of their genetic diversity. We have created the millions of damaged, inbred, avian Cletus the slack jawed yokel

This loss of diversity destroys the ability of these breeds to adapt to change, be it climatic or a something like a new wave of avian flu. If a disease should hit a flock it is practically guaranteed that if one bird dies they will all die because they are pretty much genetically identical (not to mention the horrible crowed conditions). The loss of parenting skills and the inability to breed naturally makes these species useless for the non industrial farmer, unless he wants to breed via turkey baster. Many of today's factory farm breeds no longer even have enough instinct left to make a nest, sit on their eggs or to avoid drowning in a water dish.

If we really need to revert back to a low energy agricultural system as promoted by activist/writers like Richard Heinberg, there is going to be a need for livestock that can breed, birth and parent without massive intervention. We will very likely return to small, local, non specialized farming practices and there will be great demand for breeds that are more self sufficient and adaptable

Professor Muir who did this study, is pushing for a reintroduction of genetic diversity into modern flocks but there are also many heritage breeds out there that are in decline which need to be better managed not only to maintain their own diversity but also as possible sources of fresh DNA for commercial flocks.

For those of you who are interested or already have the resources to raise endangered breeds consider supporting Rare Breeds Canada, your national equivalent or more importantly join one of their breeding programs.Recommend this Post

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Watch this to see the insanity taking place in the wake of the U.S. foreclosure crisis.

I can understand the banks not wanting to be in the used furniture business but the waste and the stupidity of sending the perfectly good contents of thousands of houses to the dump is criminal. Equally disturbing are people who've become so depressed or unstable that they leave their things in these houses to be tossed or that they leave it so long that they can't afford a truck or storage to save their stuff.

I know people were stupid and short sighted in taking on this kind of debt or signing weird mortgages. I also have a fair streak of the "you made your bed lie in it" attitude, but the destruction of stuff that most of the world's population could never aspire to own is simply disgusting. Hell, I think most of the contents in the house shown are better than I own.

Surely the banks could hire charitable organizations to empty the houses and glean.

Surely the state could council these people before the foreclosure takes place.

You'd thinks the banks would learn from the great depression. The banks who foreclosed and evicted even when they knew they there were no new tenants or buyers available did not lose 20% or 30% on a property but 80-90%. The problem was without tenants to maintain a property, heat it, paint it , guard if from vandalism or squatters the homes were ruined. People trashing or burning their own homes on eviction is rising nation wide and in Nevada especially, people are being paid off to vacate homes without damaging them. In the northeast gutting empty houses for their metal pipes is rampant.

Smart banks allowed people to stay as renters for what they could afford, the people had a place to stay, their neighbours need not know the change of status so no face was lost and the banks had a viable asset they could sell later when the market improved.

The worse news is prices are still falling, 1/5 of mortgages have negative equity, and less than half of the exotic or high risk mortgates have yet to reset. These are the kind of numbers that cause chaos and revolt.Recommend this Post